EnterpriseD 3D Project

Constructing the Enterprise D… One Deck at a time!

Star Trek: The Next Generation came out In September of 1987, almost 28 years ago. The exterior of the ship was designed by Andrew Probert, and in my mind, still holds up as a futuristic spaceship in today’s crowded spaceship market. However, one aspect that does look antiquated next to modern science fiction is the interiors. TNG shows its age with the 90’s design aesthetics: Pastel colors, minimalist furnishings, artsy furniture, and of course carpeting on the floors, walls-and everywhere. The images below highlight all of those things. Don’t get me wrong, I find the look of the ship soothing, luxurious, and somewhere I would want to visit. It just feels a bit too starchy and uncomfortable to me. And yet, this is where the beloved crew of the Enterprise D carried out their daily lives. I always had fun imagining the gruff Klingon security chief Lieutenant Worf relaxing in his pastel quarters, with a soft purple bed, strange modern sculptures, and subdued mood lighting. At least he had his bat’leth on the wall… and his spherical chair to perch in.

By contrast, the interior designs of spaceships today are a jumbled mess. Exposed wiring, piping, and the frenzied greebling that would make Star Wars ship designers drool with desire. Sci-fi these days either looks distopian, or used and worn to the point of being inoperative. The Alternate timeline Star Trek movies take this route, by making everything look far more used and gritty. And although I absolutely love the set design, I cannot resolve the differences in each of the different departments of the ship. Engineering is a series of non-scifi pipes, and massive exposed tanks, with what appears to be thousands of crew members walking through engineering. The warp core is not a core at all, but a sophisticated, yet antiquated looking (by Star Trek standards) piece of 20th century technology. Only the bridge seems to retain the high-tech look of Star Trek… excepting a few additional lens flares.

Where are the sleek lines? The hidden, almost mystical quality of the Star Trek’s engineering and technology is lost in the new movies. I feel as if I am looking at technology from today’s time, and not hundreds of years in the future.

Which brings me back to the Enterprise D. When starting the construction of the ship, I made a choice to try and preserve that 90’s design and minimalist look to the interior of the ship. I would try to only take minimal liberties with areas that had not been seen on the show. To give an example, I will describe what I was thinking of when creating the main shuttlebay.

On the show, only shuttlebay 2 or 3 is shown, and even then, I believe only a cramped. unrealistic version was built. In reality, the cargo bay, and shuttlebay sets were the same room, only re-dressed a bit for variety. The walls are a matte grey, with black lines to show a paneled look. The floors are a reflective gray, with some neat painted lines reminiscent of the LCARS system. Cargo is randomly stacked up against a wall. There are balconies, with crew looking down into the bay. The words ” Caution: Variable Gravity Area” are emblazoned on the walls. So when constructing the main shuttlebay, what design decisions did I make?

Things I left alone:

Texture / Colors

I left the gray paneled look alone. I experimented with a more busy, exposed look to the panels, but it just didn’t feel like trek. In fact most of the ship will probably have to stick to the large solid colored walls, without a lot of greebles and random science-y looking parts.

Dirt, or lack of

Star Trek is clean, where Star Wars is not. The crew of the Enterprise takes care of their ship and it shows in the spotless nature of every room. The shuttlebay is no exception, and adding grime and weathering just wouldn’t look right. This may change in the future, however, as it might be nice to weather the ship a bit, and add just a bit more detailing. Time will tell.

Things I decided to change:

Texture / Color changes

I felt that the floor could look a bit more interesting. I decided to create a hexagonal, porus looking grating system throughout the whole shuttlebay, and the adjacent cargo bays on deck 4. The color was also shifted down to a darker grey, to add more contrast to the lines. The hallway to shuttlebay doors were shifted from grey to orange to add a bit of nice color to a severely grey environment.

The space available-

The blueprints show a massive hanger deck, and this had to be shown for the shuttlebay. When I finished the intial layout, it was clear that I could fit around 50 shuttlecraft in their respective bays with all of the space I had. I also could fit in a runabout or 2. The question of whether or not a runabout would fit in the main shuttlebay always bothered me after the season 6 episode, “Timescape.”

Tractor emitters-

The show had a tractor emitter placed in the back of one of the shuttlebays that was used to move a ship into position within the bay. I positioned dozens of these throughout the main shuttlebay as a means of being able to automatically move a shuttle around corners and into its own bay without having to power it up.

Diagnostic bays

I figured that engineers and shuttle crews would need a nice place to work on damaged or broken shuttlecraft, so I built some side areas on either side of the control tower for repairs to happen. These areas are near part repositories, to speed up repairs.

You can see the results below. I will probably apply these same principles to shuttlebay 2 and 3.

Thank you for reading!

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13 Responses

Excellent work so far. Main shuttle bay looks just as I imagined it- really spectacular. Note civilian clothing also seems to be carpeted. Presumably, in the future, they have an excellent cure for rug burn.

Thanks so much for doing this! I saw your post on Facebook and watched the video. I think you’re doing a fantastic job and makes us getting the OR headset next year something I can enjoy as well as my partner! When I was 14 I had those blue prints on my bedroom walls. I would sit for hours staring in awe at all the rooms! Even discovering there were tanks with whales in them (following events in the Star Trek The Voyager Home) crazy but awesome. Made me think of those poor whales when the saucer crash landed.

Thanks again. The video looks awesome. It was great to see where the toilet was on the bridge!

This is absolutely incredible!!! I’m 30 years old and while watching the video I was practically giddy with excitement at the thought of being able to roam the Enterprise like I always dreamed about as a kid! You have really nailed the details and even the areas that you had to take liberties on feel perfectly in line with the show. I can’t wait to see more!

I really hope you are able to get licensing and are able to expand this concept.

P.S. Please get a Kickstarter or Patreon going so that I can give you money!!!

This project is absolutely fantastic. Please add me to your mailing list. At 44 years of age I grew up with TOS reruns, and then saw TNG from it’s beginnings. Both shows are very close to my heart, and TNG especially captured my imagination as a teenager. Whether or not this project becomes a full fledged game, or simply a 3D walkthrough experience I am interested. I could spend hours simply walking around the ship exploring every facet. When you are ready to accept contributions I would like to participate. Thank you for your dedication to such a wonderful project.

I love the floor in the main shuttlebay! The texture looks gorgeous, and a space that large benefits from some contrast. It’s always been a bit hard for me to fully visualize that location from blueprints. The lounge in particular is a revelation.

As a stickler for consistency, I agree with you that the show is the highest level of canon. That being said, “renovations” can be made 😉

After all, in season one, a corridor to nowhere is visible outside the port side door of the observation lounge, which they changed for later seasons to a flat set wall. What we see when people walk out of the lounge creates the single biggest inconsistency in my mind between the blueprints and the sets.

I’ve actually been working on this tough problem in Sketchup, trying to figure out the slope of the ramp versus distance and canon. I ended up going with a curved staircase, which allows for landings that have flat walls to match the show. But it lacks your Enterprise gallery walls, which are simply gorgeous.

I’d love to hear your thoughts: Does Picard have a bathroom opposite the replicator in his ready room? In Sketchup I found room to build three stalls/sinks and a couch in the starboard bridge head, so that multiple crew could use it at once. But the captain seems to have a fair bit of privacy/luxury. Love to hear your thoughts.

This is just fantastic. Having built full scale replicas of starships using other software (interior and exterior, Ent-A and Ent-E) 10 years ago, I see this being on a completely different level. You did a great job with the sound assets, room echoes, and I appreciate the controlled artistic license you’re taking with the modified textures. I’m sure this is precisely what would have been used on TNG had their budget and technology been better.

Looking at the video I originally thought you had taken much greater liberties with regard to the main shuttle at, until I did remember that we never actually see it in the show. After looking at some blueprints your re-creation is impressive. Accurate to the overall style of the show and the available blueprints, while expanding to add believability. Thanks for this awesome work. I’ve wanted a project like this for some time and can’t wait for a future release.